Description
The laughing bacchante turns her head to the left. She wears grape leaves in her hair, which is coiled in back and falls in tresses over her shoulders. When acquired, the edge of the base of the ivory was encircled by a silver band, now lost.
Stylistically, the Walters bust recalls the spirited bacchanges of the 18th-century sculptor Claude-Michel Clodion. Moreau-Vauthier exhibited an ivory bust of a bacchante at the Paris Salon of 1891 (no. 2771); a marble version was shown in 1893 (no. 3218); and a second ivory rendition was shown at the Exposition de l'Ivoire, Musée Galliera, Paris, June-October 1903.
It is signed on the right shoulder: A. MOREAU-VAUTHIER.